Big Day For Metrorail Ridership

For the first time this year, a day's worth of rail ridership broke into Metro's top 10 list of travel dates. The transit authority said people took 801,370 Metrorail trips on Wednesday, placing it at No. 9 on the all-time list for ridership.

Four of the top 10 dates are from 2007. The all-time leader is June 9, 2004, the date of Ronald Reagan's funeral, when ridership totaled 850,636. Over the years, the cherry blossom festival often has pushed a date into the top 10. That was a factor on Wednesday, but so was a series of evening sports events at Nationals Park, Verizon Center and RFK Stadium.

Look for next Thursday, the date of the morning papal mass at Nationals Park, to challenge for top 10 membership. What suggestions do you have for those traveling to the mass or just trying to avoid the resulting congestion?

I have to say that I was pretty impressed with Metro last night. It took me just 30 minutes to get from Tenleytown to Navy Yard, and everything seemed to move smoothly, even with the crowds. Going home was pretty much a breeze as well. Hopefully Metro keeps it up even when there aren't 3 games at once.

One tip for Pope-travelers would be to use all the cars on the 8 car trains. After the game at Navy Yard, I got on the last car of an 8 car train and it was maybe 1/2 full, as opposed to the sardine cans of the cars further up the platform.

On Saturday, I was on a 6-car train at Metro Center which was forced to unload because the passengers crowding into the middle car wouldn't allow the doors to close...and there were still empty seats in the back!

On Saturday, I was on a 6-car train at Metro Center which was forced to unload because the passengers crowding into the middle car wouldn't allow the doors to close...and there were still empty seats in the back!

I had to wait 20-30 minutes after the Nationals game on 4/10/08 for a Green Line train from Navy Yard traveling to Southern Avenue. Metro steadily push through 3-4 trains traveling in the Gallery Place direction. Even having trains to share a track between Southern Avenue and Anacostia, to get more trains traveling in the Gallery Place direction while passengers waited and waited piling up on the platform in the Branch Avenue direction.